Angry Ginge, John Terry and Prem stars – it’s the Baller League | Football | Sport
Angry Ginge is one of the most famous faces at the Baller League (Image: Getty)
“Make some noise” the Baller League announcer shouts as a cacophony of high pitch, youthful squeals fill the Copper Box Arena, testing the mettle of your ear drums and the structural integrity of the roof. But the division was making noise long before the microphone man began orchestrating the yells of the youngsters in the crowd.
My evening at the vibrant, at-times confusing, all-times unpredictable Baller League match-night made me feel like I was inside the looking glass. I went in with an open-mind, mainly due to the fact I had never really tuned into the football league, which binds the streaming and influencing world together with the football legends of the past and the academy talents of the future. When the matches are in play. You think to yourself, ‘Okay, I’ve got this. It’s six-a-side indoor football. There is a VAR monitor. When ‘Gamechanger’ is announced the rules will suddenly change so for example…wait, is that Ciaran Clark and Henri Lansbury standing by…Jens Lehmann?’
Despite your suspicions, there are no hallucinogenics in the cans of water on offer at the Baller League and your eye-sight is doing just fine. Interspersed within the Baller League players – who are former academy players from the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and many more – are other Premier League stars from yesterday.
Lehmann is now the manager of Baller League side N5FC alongside fellow Arsenal icon Robert Pires and content creator Eman SV2, real name Abisola Emmanuel Balogun. As I look for other Barclaysmen, a loud, but familiar, chuckle erupts behind me, prompting me to turn around and spot Micah Richards in the tunnel.
Later on, John Terry stood in the same spot as his ex-England colleague. Terry was recently linked with Oxford United, but the legendary Chelsea captain has a job as manager of the 26ers. Lionesses hero Chloe Kelly, newly knighted acting star Sir Idris Elba, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright are other examples of sport and pop culture royalty who are involved.
But one of the major pioneers of the event is I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here winner and influencing titan Angry Ginge, whose real name is Morgan Burtwistle. In an exclusive interview with Express Sport, when asked about the Baller League, he said: “We’ve got ex-pros like Ciaran Clark playing here, Josh Harrop who used to be at United. There are some huge names already here. But it’s not just about them, it’s about the other names we can bring here and get them to make a name for themselves, like Tyler Winters.”
Petr Cech was recently unveiled as John Terry’s ‘Mystery Player’ in the Baller League (Image: Baller League)
Ginge has been with the scheme since the beginning. When the pitch arrived in the form of a gigantic booklet of rules and regulations, there was unease at first. He said: “We got sent a rule book the day before it was supposed to start. It was like ‘Oh dear, this could be a lot to take in. It was 25 pages long. First night it was iffy with some certain things, but within two weeks it was all running smoothly and you get to grips with it.”
The vision, excitement, and reach convinced Sky Sports to broadcast the match nights, combining the infrastructure, equipment and production nous of the broadcaster with the flair, creativity and gregariousness of the streamers. Terry, Wright, Kelly and the other managers may provide the intrigue which reaches traditional fans, but the loud and passionate cries from the kids in the stands are for Ginge and other streamers/YouTubers like Chunkz (Amin Mohamed), Niko Omilana and even Maya Jama.
Traditional football fans may turn their nose up at the Baller League, but the ones on the pitch are those who have scored, celebrated, bled and cried while wearing the shirts of Premier League clubs. One of those is John Bostock, Crystal Palace’s youngest-ever player, who also played for Tottenham.
Bostock is widely known for turning down the offer of a ten-year-contract with Barcelona when he was a teenager. He now prefers to look into the future rather than dwell on past decisions. In his opinion, for many academy players who cannot smash through the glass ceiling between the U21s and the first team, Bostock believes the Baller League is a new avenue to play and enjoy football, and maybe even build a brand at the same time.
He also told Express Sport: “The Premier League is the best league in the world, but how many players will play in the Premier League? Very, very, very, very few in terms of those who start in the pool of football or go into the pool of football in academies and whatnot. It gives an option and some players play for the joy of it, some players play for finances and some players play to build their brand. You can’t judge someone for why they play football.
“It gives people an option to be able to do something fresh, something new and it’s taking football back to the streets. I think we live in an age now where this generation is maybe behind devices a lot and not playing out as much as maybe in my generation, so street football is different to what it used to be. This takes you back to a bit of that.”
Another high-profile youngster within the Baller League is Alfie Matthews, the ex-Arsenal academy star who now turns out for SDS FC. He was one of only four players to be given a pre-scholarship contract at Arsenal two years early, alongside Ben Cottrell, Arthur Okonkwo and, significantly, Bukayo Saka.
Alfie Matthews, a former Arsenal prodigy, is also enjoying his time in the Baller League (Image: Baller League)
Now he is playing for Dover and starring in the Baller League at the same time. He still dreams of getting back into the Football League, but is loving every second of competing in the unique division. “If someone told me five years ago that I’d be playing in a YouTuber slash influencer football league, I would have laughed in their face, sort of thing,” he laughed.
When asked about the potential brand and social media opportunities which could arise in the Baller League, he added: “You look at other boys in the league and they’ve got a massive Instagram following and even little things. Like with Love Island, there can be a lot of promotion deals and brand deals.
“I think it’s good for everybody. Listen, we’re not all millionaires. If you can pick up an extra pound note or anything people are going to do it. People have got families to feed and stuff like that.
I’m just doing it to keep myself fit, but ultimately it’s helping my 11-a-side career as well. But, again, you never know, if this goes full-time. We always say the season one boys are the pioneers of the Baller League. Hopefully, I can be from the start all the way to the end.”
Baller League: Final Four will air live for Free from 3pm on Sunday 11th January
